She Doesn't Say
by Aibhionne
Summary: The blue box crash landing in her garden was not Amelia Pond's first experience of the extraterrestrial. Growing up on tales of the alien in the blue box that she could never, ever mention to her mother is a lesson in when to keep your mouth shut. Oneshot.


Amelia Pond always knew that odd things existed. That the stories her mum's Grandad would tell her weren't the usual bedtime story. That the stories were _real_. This is probably the reason why, when a police box broke her shed falling from the sky, she wasn't entirely shocked.

Amelia Pond knew that other people didn't know about the odd things. So, when a raggedy looking man popped his head out of the fallen box and demanded an apple, she didn't ask, _'What species are you?'._ She didn't ask, _'Are you a hostile alien, or a friendly one?'_ She definitely didn't ask, _'Are you aware that your presence on this planet is in contravention of galactic law?'._

Instead, she asked: "Are you okay?". She asked, "Are you alright, mister?" Because her parents raised her to be polite, even to aliens that crash in your back garden. And if the alien starts causing issues, then she's allowed to use any of the bad words that she certainly didn't learn from her mother, no matter what grandma says.

Amelia Pond didn't say _'Identify your place of origin and species designation as set down by the Shadow Proclamation'._ Instead she said, "Who are you?" and swallowed the automatic _'You can't be'_ when this man called himself the Doctor.

She fed this raggedy Doctor-man all the food in her Aunt Sharon's fridge, and didn't ask ' _since you're a doctor, can you help mum?'_. She didn't say _'something is wrong and no-one will tell me what, and now dad and mum have gone to London and say they're on holiday but I'm not stupid, I've seen the letters and something is wrong with mum.'._ She didn't say _'mum keeps saying everything will be fine, but I know that's a lie'._

She lets the Doctor say, "everything will be fine" and she lets the Doctor fly away. And she knows not to believe him when he says, "give me five minutes".

That doesn't mean she doesn't wait. And it doesn't mean she isn't disappointed.

* * *

That disappointment is probably the reason why Amy Pond doesn't feel bad for hitting him with a cricket bat.

The hope that let her wait is the reason why she takes this doctor's hand the night before her wedding and lets him take her away. When she hangs in space, she finally believes that this might just be the Doctor her mum's grandad always told her about – though only when mum and grandma were out of earshot.

She looks at the Doctor and feels the echo of a second heartbeat in her chest. Meets his eyes and feels familiarity at the edges of her consciousness, in the corner of her mind, in her soul. Poor Rory thinks it is love, but it is nothing of the sort. It is kinship. She doesn't tell either of them this.

Travelling with the Doctor, Amy gets very good at not saying things.

When Professor Bracewell unveils the Ironside project, she doesn't say, _'That's a Dalek, isn't it?'._ She doesn't say, _'Do you know what they did to my planet?'_. She definitely doesn't say, _'Do you know what they did to my mum?'_. She pretends that she's forgotten just like everyone else.

Then she does forget; Everyone forgets. Her mother is healthy, Rory never existed.

And then she remembers. Amy Pond fixes the timeline and saves the universe. Only later does she cry. And then Amy Pond decides.

* * *

Once her tears have dried, she says, "Doctor, there's something I have to do."

Once they've arrived at the hospital, she says, "Doctor, you need to come in too."

Once she gets to the reception desk, she says, "I'm here to see my mum." She says, "My name is Amelia-Rose Noble." She says, "My mum's in the palliative care ward. Her name is Donna."

The Doctor says, "I can't see her." He says, "Amy, if she remembers, she'll die."

She'll die anyway. Brain tumour. The Doctor gave her twenty years of life, and now he needs to give her back the stars.

She says, "Doctor, her grandad told me that she saved the universe. He told me they sing her name across the universe and she will never be forgotten."

She says, "Doctor, I forgot, and then I remembered. Let her do the same."

The Doctor doesn't say anything. He doesn't turn around and walk away either.

Eventually he says, "Donna? I'm the Doctor."

"Another Doctor? Skinny men in suits, the lot of you. Getting younger every year. Are you here to tell me that I've got months to live? Are you going to try and convince me to have another surgery?"

"I... no. Donna, if you could learn something that would kill you... would you learn it?"

Donna says, "Something's gotta kill me. I thought it would be aliens not –"

And then she says, "Amy, darling, can you give me more morphine, I've got a terrible headache."

She says, "I'm sorry, what were we discussing? I find it difficult to hold a train of thought these days."

Amy is crying when she says, "Doctor. Please."

And the most important woman in the universe _remembers._

And Donna Noble dies with a smile on her face.

* * *

They get coffee and then Amy explains.

How her and her siblings are called Rose and Jack and Martha and Sarah-Jane, because her mum always said ' _They sound like the names of people that can save the world.'_

How her mum married Augustus Pond but never changed her name because she'd got sick of doing the forms after her first divorce.

How her mum and her siblings are just that little bit brilliant. How her mum was comfortable being a stay-at-home mum but still proof-read all her kids essays - how even Martha, when she was doing her Doctorate in Quantum Thermodynamics, still sent her thesis to mum to check over the theory.

How mum's Grandad Wilf would make sure that all his great-grandkids knew about the Doctor who saved his life at the cost of his own. The alien with two hearts who travelled with their mum. How their mum had to forget all the wonder in order to survive.

How they all had just that little bit of Time Lord in them, because their mum had a whole alien brain locked away in her head.

Amy explains how she can feel the earth spinning beneath her and hurtling through space. How when she sleeps in the Tardis she feels an echo of the heart she'll never have. How she can feel his mind brushing against the edge of hers.

And the Doctor smiles.


End file.
